


Uh Oh (i think i love you)

by suspendedreality



Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018) Actor RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Developing Relationship, M/M, Mutual Pining, Secret Relationship, they're in grad school baby
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2020-01-25 17:26:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18579148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suspendedreality/pseuds/suspendedreality
Summary: It had been months, but Joe very clearly remembered their conversation pre-meeting Gwilym."Don't sleep with my roommate, Joe."And then,"You remember what happened last time,Joe." Their deal ofYou don't sleep with my roommate, and I won't sleep with yoursseemed like a dandy idea at the time.Ben had, as far as Joe knew, had upheld his end of the deal. Because Ben was great like that, totally amazing and honorable. Joe on the other hand was a fuckingidiot. An idiot who was head-over-heels in love with his best friend's new roommate.





	Uh Oh (i think i love you)

Joe was cornered — truly, in a little niche of the wall between the end of the hall and Ben’s apartment door.  _ Said man _ had his finger jabbed into Joe’s chest, a steely look in his eyes.

“You  _ can’t _ date my roommate,” he hissed, threat stacked under layers of firm tones and sharp glances.

Joe spluttered indignantly. “I haven’t even  _ seen _ your roommate yet,” he quipped, shrugging him off. He ducked around Ben’s side and cracked open the door.

“Don’t even  _ look _ at him, or I swear to God, Joseph—” all these words were hissed in his ear, of course, as Joe pushed open the door. Joe waved him off, accidentally hitting him in the face in the process. He yelped, yelling Joe’s name.

“You’ll be fine, Benny,” Joe snorted, totally void of sympathy. “Look.” He whirled around, halfway between kicking off his sneakers into a messy little pile by the door. He’d pick them up and transport them to Ben’s room in a moment. For now though, he grabbed hold of Ben’s shoulders (mostly for stability, but it worked wonders for commanding the other’s attention as well) and looked him dead in the eyes. “I’m not going to fuck your roommate, a man whom I know literally nothing about.”

“ _ Charlie Marlo _ ,” Ben interrupted sharply. “You dated Charlie, broke up, and then she couldn’t even be in the same room with me until our lease was up because I reminded her too much of you.”

Joe stared at him. Okay. So that was a bit of a shit show. He’ll grant that point to Ben. “Alright,” Joe sighed. “Fine. I’ll make you a deal. I won’t fuck your roommate, and in turn, uh… you can’t fuck mine either.”

Ben stared at him deadpan. “I thought you were with your mate from LA.”

“Oh yes. Rami. My very sexy friend from LA that you are, as of now, not allowed to sleep with.”

“Sounds like you’d rather fuck him, mate,” Ben said. Joe offered his hand, and Ben sighed tightly. “Fine. Yes, I agree.” He shook Joe’s hand just in time for noise to come from the inside of the apartment.

It was something like an envelope being ripped open and footsteps coming up the hall. And then a pleasant sort of voice joined in. “Oh, you’re home, wonderful. Who’s this?”

Joe twisted around, already putting on his most charming smile for Benny Boy’s now-off limits roommate. “Joe Mazzello, I’m sure Benny here talks  _ loads _ about me—” he cut himself off at the very end of his sentence, blinking a few times at the man before he regained his momentum.

He was fucking gorgeous. Stunning. Looking like the kind of boy you’d love to take home to your grandma. He was tall, with legs for  _ days _ . He was so handsome, Joe thought he would practically melt.

Ben kicked his heel in the very same moment the man — Gwil, Joe recalled — smiled at him. A whirling, sucker punch to the gut different sensations, let him tell you.

“Wonderful to meet you,” he said. His sleeves were rolled up, and Joe tried very very hard to take his eyes off of his forearms. The wristwatch was a very unfair touch… and Joe  _ loved _ it. “Gwilym Lee.” He shook Joe’s hand, and that’s when Joe realized that he was well and truly fucked.

———

Truthfully, Joe had planned to keep it under wraps, this lust for Ben’s roommate.

And then they got to know each other. The boys met and hung out with Joe and Rami, and they all just hit it off. It took them very little time to establish bonds, and before Joe even really knew it, they were always in each other’s pockets.

They made a  _ group chat _ .

This was all very terrible, because when they were trading texts and video and calls in the rare occasions that they weren’t all face-to-face, Joe found himself connecting with Gwil the same way he had connected with Rami, and later Ben.

Which was a mighty terrible thing, because Joe was already in trouble for wanting to push Gwil up a wall and kiss the daylights out of him, to pull at his hair and mouth at his throat—

Cause god _ dammit _ , now he was thinking about holding his hand, and getting brunch with him… editing his videos on the couch while Gwil does his homework, or watches a movie or something.

Something terrible had happened.

Joe’s lust just melted into a bonafide  _ crush _ .

Fuck.

———

Joe’s head felt like it was stuffed with cotton. And, like, it was once wet, but now it was just sticking to the insides of his head, unravelling and stringing out as it clung desperately to parts of his brain.

And then he registered the pounding. High and sharp, each thud dulling and blending into the next.

He breathed out a curse and slowly shifted up to his elbows. He scrubbed at his eyes with his knuckles and slowly eased his eyes open.

There was a methodical process of re-learning how to move his body that involved a lot of little wiggles and shifting his limbs, bowing his back until he was satisfied. By his estimation, he hadn’t broken anything. He felt pretty intact in general.

Joe: 1, Drunken Night Out With The Boys: 0

He assumed “Drunken Night Out With The Boys” was a complete zero-pointer, because guess who could remember barely literally any detail after arriving at the bar.

Joe. It was Joe.

And yeah, maybe that was a point against him, so until further notice, and new evidence arrived, it was 1-1, all tied up, and Joe’s head was still fucking pounding.

Joe gingerly rolled himself off the couch so he could lie on his back between the coffee table and the foot of the sofa. The floor in Ben’s apartment was hard, sure, but...

Well, he didn’t really have an excuse to his sudden relocation. He was living in a burning building, his headache was the smoke trying to choke him out — the closer he got to the ground, the safer he was gonna be. 

Did that make sense? Jesus, maybe he was still drunk.

He tossed an arm over his eyes and heaved a sharp sigh.

They spent a little too much time in the bar last night. Ben got the email confirming that he was up for the internship he’d been gunning for the entire semester, and that was quite obviously an occasion to celebrate.

And that’s how Ben, Rami and Joe ended up staying out all night, getting absolutely  _ wasted _ .

Gwilym had been kept behind, chained down by some project he probably wouldn’t have remembered the details to, even without the fact that Joe was already half-buzzed when Gwil told him. It was a drag, but they made sure to keep him updated.

One of the scenes he remembered, out of the hours of blanked-out film reel in his head, had him in a cramped public bathroom. He was backed up against the sink, rambling about  _ God _ only knew to a video that he ended up sending to Gwil.

_ Eugh, fuck _ . He was going to have to go back into his photoreel and hope to God that he hadn’t said anything terribly embarrassing.

“Looks like you and the boys had some fun.”

Joe’s eyes shot open, and he picked his heavy arm up off his eyes so he could look blearily up at Gwil. Gwil, who had his arms braced on the back of the couch as he stared at Joe over the cushions. He smiled, bright as day, and there was that thought again — the one that made Joe want to reach for Gwil until he was in the other man’s arms, able to kiss him ‘till the sun went down.

“That obvious?” he asked instead, his voice scraped and raw.

“Yeah, a bit,” Gwil teased, his nose scrunching up.

Joe made a ‘ _ blegh _ ’ sort of noise and settled back into the floor. “Wake me up when the world decides to stop spinning.”

Gwil laughed. Nothing obtrusive — quite the opposite, really. It was a welcome sound, like the personification of warm honey. Awfully fucking rude to make Joe listen to such a sweet sound so early in the morning, if he said so himself. “Afraid that isn’t going to happen, love. Come on, up you get.” He rounded the couch and offered his hand. Joe was lifted ever-so-carefully onto his feet and made to shuffle the terribly long twelve and a half steps to the open kitchen. “Let’s get a glass of orange juice and some Aspirin in you, and maybe you’ll feel a bit more alive.”

“Be careful, Gwilym Lee,” Joe warned through a sigh. He took the stool next to the little square table and slumped over the table top. “With all those sweet promises, just might have to ask you to marry me.”

“Where have I heard that one before?” Gwilym teased, grinning like a shark. Joe peered up at him, a furrow in his brow and confusion mottled in his eyes. “Oh,” Gwilym sounded utterly delighted. He took the juice from the refrigerator and poured Joe a glass, placing it right in front of him. “Don’t tell me you don’t remember all the pretty words you sent me last night.”

Joe moved his arm so he could let his head thump to the table with an awfully loud groan. “Fuck me,” he cursed, his nose all smushed under him.

“That was implied, yes.”

Joe winced. “Sorry about that,” he muttered, feeling really rather small. It was one thing to suspect that you’ve done something stupid, something completely different to be confronted with one of the many the causes of your stupidity.

“Don’t be — I think I rather enjoyed it.” Joe looked up to find a sly little smile at the corner of Gwil’s mouth. “It’s not too often that someone shows me so much interest.” Joe muttered something to the table that sounded suspiciously like  _ bullshit _ . Who was to say, really. “You had some very interesting things to say, too,” he went on.

“Dear God.”

“Bit of advice. Next time you want to ask me out on a date, maybe try it sober… Who knows, might say yes to that one.”

Joe’s head jerked up, and he ignored the spike in pain in favor of staring wildly at Gwil, trying to decide if he’d heard him properly or not. Gwil just smiled at him. And just like  _ that _ , he winked at Joe and left the room, a soft pat on the top of Joe’s head and a bottle of Aspirin left in his wake.

Oh  _ fuck _ .

Ben shuffled in directly after Gwilym, managing to look both wild and mellow at the same time. He drank the juice directly from the jug and tried to scrub his hair off of his forehead. No use. His golden maiden locks were tossed all over his head like a frumpled pile of waves. He had a hickey sucked just below his ear. Joe would ask about it later, he was sure. Rib him a bit, but for now he was too focused on Gwil’s words.

This was a goddamn dilemma.

“You look like hell,” Ben told him, like he wasn’t squinting against the light of the room. And yeah, there was another hickey on his collarbone. Jesus Christ, how old was his kissing partner last night? Hickeys, really?

“Thanks, it’s my specialty. Where did Rami end up?” He couldn’t remember dropping him off at their apartment, but then again, he was pretty sure that option was off the table. After all, what was the sense in Joe dropping Rami back off at home and then travelling all the way back to Ben’s apartment? None, really. He just really hoped that Rami ended up coming home with them, rather than a hookup he’d found.

Ben twisted around to try and find the cap to the juice bottle. “My room.”

Joe frowned, pulling his hands away from his face where he was scrubbing his eyes. “Why your room?” That was almost more worrying than the thought of Rami off galavanting off with a one-nighter.

Ben rolled a shoulder and re-capped the juice. “We just passed out.” Joe can’t decide if his voice sounds flighty, or if it’s just his ears and subsequent hangover. “He was all wrapped up like a burrito, last I saw. Might’ve even suffocated under all those blankets.” Joe’s grunt was soft and concerned, and Ben turned back to him with a cheeky little smile. “I’ll check on him. You know where the breakfast things are.” He clicked his tongue at Joe before he left the room, too.

———

Joe thought about what Gwilym said a lot.

_ Next time you want to ask me out on a date, try it sober. _

Here’s the thing. Joe’s sober. So sober. Who’s an alcohol? Don’t know her, sorry.

He was sober and couldn’t get the damn words out of his mind. He was very aware that it was a bad idea. Ben was going to  _ kill him _ and dump his body into the bay. He was going to eviscerate him and leave him out on a sidewalk somewhere.

It had been months, but Joe very clearly remembered their conversation pre-meeting Gwilym.

_ Don’t fuck my roomie (again), and I won’t fuck yours. _

Ben had, as far as Joe knew, had upheld his end of the deal. Because Ben was great like that, totally amazing and honorable. Joe on the other hand was a fucking  _ idiot _ . He was a fool head over his goddamn heels.

Joe looked at Gwil, and his chest fluttered. This was such a bad idea. He could —  _ did _ — recognize that fact. They all liked Gwilym. They  _ cared _ for him, and it would be a deep shame if something were to tear them all apart. It killed Joe to think that he could potentially be the cause.

Joe knew that. He  _ knew _ this was stupid. It could ruin everything, their months of developing this friendship they’ve grown into...

And yet?

Gwilym caught his eyes through the window of the little bistro and beamed, looking so happy that Joe thought the sight was going to make his heart burst out of his chest. He looked so comfy sitting in the little booth in his soft cardigan that it nearly had Joe swooning. Joe waved to him, but paused just outside the door, hand on the push-bar, just so he could take a  _ breath _ .

After a second, he pushed the door open and made his way towards his date. Gwil stood and greeted him with a kiss to his cheek.

“Hi.” Joe couldn’t keep the stupid grin out of his voice.

“Hi, you look wonderful. Shall we?”

There’s that  _ and yet _ , in Joe’s mind again. This was stupid and risky… Yet Joe’s heart was in his throat, but this time it was in a good way. He slid into the booth across from Gwil and settled in.

This could all go so wrong… but that was okay. They were just going to have to make sure that it all went very right. 

**Author's Note:**

> :)) I have been working on this fc for a straight month, mostly been fighting it and trying to go in the direction I originally set. Now I've just accepted it for what it's become, and it's flowing a lot easier, it seems
> 
> it was supposed to be a _4 times Gwil and Joe were almost caught and the 1 time they came out on their own._ and it was gonna be so funny but like Yo Man when the fic changes, it changes. im not strong enough to deter it.
> 
> I hope you liked it! I'm not exactly sure when the next part will be up, but I'm trying my best guys, don't doubt.
> 
> hit me up on [tumblr](https://mazlektov.tumblr.com/)


End file.
